Two by Two

First Day of School

That time again -- first day of 10th grade and 7th grade.

Summer Lacrosse

We normally take a break from sports for the summer, but this year there was a fun opportunity that came up and the boys and Joe did it. It was 7 vs 7 lacrosse. So, shorter fields, fewer players and a faster moving game. The best part of all. . . they had  middle school teams (Owen played, but Johnny took a break), high school teams (Jackson) and an old guy team (Joe). Jackson's team played Joe's team twice and both times, Jackson's team was victorious. 

It was a lot of fun to watch the three of them play, but it was the most fun watching the old guys. Naturally, they were a lot slower than the high schoolers but they tried hard and sweat a lot! I am also guessing they were a lot more sore than those young kids! I have never heard a referee laugh aloud during a game. . . but these refs laughed a lot at the old guys!

 

 

 

No more braces for Leah

Of the three kids who had to have braces, she definitely had the most work to be done! She had a tooth that we lovingly named "Crazy Tooth" that did its own thing. She had to have a surgery to open her gum and pull a tooth down and she had every type of crazy thing in between. But, after 2 and a half years, she finally got them off. (It was the day before her 15th birthday in May.)

Needless to say, she is ecstatic!

 

Summer freckles

Johnny has a good crop of freckles this year! A sign of a lot of time outside.

Summer List 2018

Our summer list is definitely a little different now that they are older. It took us a few weeks into summer to get around to it and there are fewer things on it, but we got it.

I started doing this many, many years ago with the intention of really using our summer for what summer is meant to be. . . relaxing, having fun and doing things that we don't always have time for during the busy, scheduled school year. It served as a way for us to be more intentional and wake up in the morning and say, 'Hey, let's have a water day and play in the sprinklers today!"

As they get older and have more responsibilities (sports conditioning, part time jobs, summer school assignments) we have less and less time to just relax and hang out. But, I still want to be a tad intentional.  Anyway, here is our summer list. 

Nothing says 17 years of marriage, like bunk beds

A few months back, I told Joe that I had a great way for us to celebrate our 17th Wedding Anniversary. We usually don't do much to celebrate it, but I thought it would be fun to go away for a weekend.

So, I booked a night at the Len Foote Hike Inn. 
It is located in the Chattahoochee National Forest and you have to hike to it.

5 miles. . . in the mountains.

We dropped the kids off with GrandDad and headed to the North Georgia mountains. We had to carry everything in our backpacks and while we thought we packed pretty lightly, our 13 pound backpacks felt like about 50 pounds as we walked on. In some places, it was just fine. But in other places, it was hard. The steps and the roots and the rocks and the uphill climbs. Those were not my friend!

It took us about 3 hours to walk up. Once we made it to the Inn, we got situated in our room.

And what says 17 years of wedded bliss, more than bunk beds? And no A/C? And no TV?  

It has been in the 90s all week, so I was a tad nervous about the no A/C. But, it was overcast and stayed around 74 for our hike and then was even cooler all night. So, with the fan that they provided and a screen door, we actually were really comfortable. They serve dinner and breakfast and the food was great -- very fresh and it is all served, family style, so you make new friends pretty quickly. 

The views were beautiful and unplugging from technology and just "being" was really nice. 

We slept great (that 5 mile hike up helped!) and after breakfast, we headed back down the mountain this morning. It took us around 2 hours to come down . . . not as hard as yesterday (more downhill, less uphill)  .

Joe thought I was a little crazy when I first told him my idea. . . the no technology, no TV, hiking 5 miles each way, etc. But, in the end he really enjoyed it too!

 

Summer is here. . .

It always amazes me to look at how much my kids change from August to June. Here is 1st day and last day of 9th and 6th grades.

9 weeks of fun coming up!

Lacrosse. . . all Spring long!

In addition to the long High School lacrosse season, Owen and Johnny were also playing rec lacrosse. There were some weeks that we had lacrosse games (between all 4) 4 out of 7 days!

Joe also coached again, which actually makes it easier for me, because I don't have to get them back and forth to practice. It was a long Spring. . . but one that I know, we will one day wish we had back again. 

Braces off for Johnny

After about 2 years, Johnny got his braces off! 

Rewind: 12 Year Olds

Johnny and Owen turned 12 this year! I asked them where they wanted to go for their birthday dinner and got completely different answers. . . I asked them what kind of cake they wanted and got completely different answers. Which really just sums up how uniquely different they are. 

Like any other siblings, they have different personalities, different strengths and different opinions! They ended up agreeing on an ice cream cake for breakfast and Chili's for dinner. 

I am very honest with the fact that I am a terrible package wrapper. I am a great gift giver -- meaning, I really give a lot of thought and try to always choose a gift that is unique for the person. But, I am not good at the packaging. Their gifts were wrapped. And, I used lots of different paper (trying to use up some of the misc paper I had). So, there was Birthday, Baby Shower and Christmas all represented. Oh well - they loved what was inside!